Tesla CEO Reduces 2016 Chinese Sales Target

Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, has revealed that the company has gone ahead and lowered its sales targets for China for the year 2016, according to recent reports.

This follows the company’s rather disappointing sales performance in China during 2015, which saw the company “only” move 3,025 vehicles during the first 9 months, despite a target for the year (in the region) of 10,000.

The company’s performance in other markets more than made up for it, but considering the high hopes placed on the Chinese market, the year was underwhelming to say the least.

The new sales target for 2016 in China is 5,000 units, according to Musk — a very achievable target, going by 2015’s sales numbers.

The Nikkei Asian Review reported that Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said that the company has trimmed its China EV sales target for this year to 5,000 units, down from last year’s target of 10,000. Tesla has reported that it had sold 3,025 cars in China through the first nine months of 2015. Nevertheless, Tesla’s Q3 2015 results were its strongest yet in China: 1,345 Model S vehicles, 11% of Tesla’s global deliveries.

However, China-based BYD delivered 5,749 new energy vehicles in country in September 2015 alone—a threefold year-on-year increase. Globally, BYD sold 61,722 plug-ins last year, the majority of which were in China. BYD’s passenger vehicle sales are made in China. Tesla said it delivered 50,557 vehicles worldwide in 2015.

So, there’s no way to sugarcoat it, Tesla is getting crushed in China, by a Chinese company — something that shouldn’t be a surprise considering the country’s (sensibly) protectionist policies/political climate.

Musk commented on that recently, stating: “We are still doing reasonably well in mainland China, but we do face quite high import duty, and we do not yet have access to local incentives. The obstacle for our cars in mainland China is much greater than it would be, actually, anywhere in the world.”

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy. You can follow his work on Google+.

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